Page 25 of The Holiday Boyfriend

It took me a while to remember what the question was. It wasn't my fault that he'd turned my brain into mush, first from the kiss and now the hand holding. The immunity I'd built up over the years to stop myself from leaking any lust to him had been wholly obliterated over the last two weeks. Now, he took care of my needs when I voiced them, and it was amazing.

“Don't you know it's not nice to peek at other people's messages?” I said, poking him in the stomach. He grabbed my hand and threaded our fingers together.

“I just happened to look over. It's not my fault I saw that bastard's name on your phone,” he grumbled but didn't look the slightest bit guilty.

I laughed and lunged at him, pushing him on his back while I lay on top of him. He plopped down with an “oof” as he wrapped his large hands around my waist.

“Are you jealous?” I asked, staring down at him. His eyes widened at my question and his face transformed into a mask of confusion with his brow furrowed.

“What? No!” he quickly denied but added a second later, “maybe…”

I laughed and pressed a kiss on the wrinkles that formed in between his brows, smoothing them out. He pulled my head down until our lips met in a scorching kiss that felt a hell of a lot more intimate than the kind friends shared, even if we had added benefits.

“Now that we've confirmed how stupid I am for being jealous, shouldn't you take pity on me and agree not to see anyone else?” Jim asked when the kiss ended. He jutted his lower lip out in a very non-manly pout, causing me to laugh again.

A growl came from Jim as he flipped us around so that I was on my back this time. He held my hands hostage and brought them over my head. He pinned me with a fiery look that had the laugh stopping in my throat.

I tried to clear it, but my voice sounded raspy when I spoke. “I won't see anyone else. You're the only one.”

It's always been you. Only you. Why can't you see that?

It was obvious he wasn't aware when he'd never seen himself being with a man inthatway, and I had to remember that. Jim and I would never truly happen. By some miracle, I was able to have him like this for a bit of time, but all good things had to come to an end.

I ignored the pang his shining smile gave my heart and focused on the task at hand. “But we should set a time limit. We're not getting any younger. We don't have time to fool around forever,” I said, even though these were the last words I wanted to come out of my mouth. However much it hurt to say, this was the only way to protect my heart.

Jim digested my words and slowly nodded. “That makes sense,” he said, and my insides were screaming, crying, for him to disagree with me, to tell me he wasn't fooling around. It was a shame this wasn't another one of my dreams.

“How about until the last dance? I promised that I'd spend every single one of them with you. We'll be holiday boyfriends and go back to our normal in time for the new year,” he said, smiling like he'd come up with the most genius plan in the world.

My insides constricted at the finality of his words. Our time was on a countdown, and my breath stopped in my throat. I forced myself to take in the precious air.

“Holiday boyfriends. Sounds good,” I said, trying to keep my voice as level as possible. It was stupid of me to be hurt when I was the one who suggested having an end date in the first place.

Besides, this was the right thing to do. I couldn't hope that Jim would stay mine forever. Having him belong to me during the holidays would be enough. It had to be, and years in the future, I would look back on all of this as a fond memory.

SIXTEEN

JIM

Being friends with benefits with your best friend was the best idea ever. I didn't know why more people didn't do it.

Because Austin and I have known each other for so long, we rarely fought. On the rare instances that we did, it was usually about trivial matters like me hogging the blanket or Austin taking forever in the shower which were all resolved pretty quickly.

It was so much different from my previous relationships where my girlfriend would nag at me over every little thing. Not to mention the explosive chemistry Austin and I had.

In all the years that I’d known him, I didn't know how I never realized how fucking sexy the man was. Or the fact that the man gave earth-shattering head. I tried not to think about who else he'd used those skills on, because I was sure Jared was one of the lucky recipients.

That fucktard.

Fortunately, Austin had replied to him and made it clear he wasn't interested in going down memory lane with him. I'd made sure to watch as he sent the text.

It made me feel better knowing that snake wasn't trying to get into Austin's pants while Austin was away. Every year for work, Austin stayed with a friend in the city for a week or two right before Thanksgiving.

Thanksgiving was one of those holidays where most people went home, which meant that there weren't many tourists coming to our small town or any work for Austin to find here.

A week had passed since Austin left, so here I was, laying on the grass and trying to miss Austin in peace but failing since there was a raging cock—and not the fun kind—crowing insistently in my ear.

“Shut up, Big Boss! I'm not even on your territory,” I yelled at the rooster, who had his chest and feathers puffed up like he was about to fight something, and if he didn't stop his screaming soon, I would happily take him on as his opponent.

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